cold B3300SU

[pudd750]

when I was completing the deal for the new 3300 the dealer sort of stressed "don't work it till its up to temp", or "warmed up", I forget which, ok, but the cold needle stays cold, and now that its in my barn hes told me "dont worry about it" - total of maybe 30 hours on it, and the needle remains what looks like slammed on bottom, -any sort of 110 volt heater would only work while plugged in, not working-it starts good ,now I'm very ready to put cardboard in front of the radiator and watch the cold needle move up a bit -exhaust pipe basically can be touched while running -don't want to run this anymore like this especially alarming moving snow , running it so cold- my 1st diesel, it acts like theres no thermostat , radiator and top pipe warms when its still cold

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

It's fine, they run cold.
That's one of the reasons Kubota's can take a ton of hours on the engines!

What he should have said was let it warm up before putting it to work.
Start it up set it to a mid to upper idle and let it warm up a few minuets before working it hard, that lets all the fluids get to the right places.

That tractor does not have the problematic emission control system that the B3350 has.
If you don't run the B3350 full out and hot it will foul all up!

Don't put cardboard or anything else in it, you're not going to hurt it working it running on the cool side!

 

[pudd750]

amazing- thanx - just wanted to hear it from another person that these run cold and this is normal - I took a thermometer gun out and after a few minutes of high idle, after plowing snow for an hour, the exhaust pipe indicated 100 F so I touched it, and it was not much warmer than my hand , all the other motor parts were well under 100 - goes against all ive understood about motors, happier at 190 F- I guess the only reason for the covering over the radiator is for cab heat , if theres a cab engineered to run forever cold- amazing- BTW I couldn't find a checker but I looked at the antifreeze and it appears to be pure , with no water in it , very bright fluorescent green - doesn't antifreeze always need some water in it?-- kind of high idle for a few minutes is all it needs - willco- I don't run it all the way to PTO rpm speed, seems excessive - I run it a bit below that

 

[jkcolo22]

Diesel engines (generally speaking) run quite a bit cooler than gasoline engines. This is especially true at idle. It can take a very long time for a cold Diesel engine to “get up to temp” is it’s been sitting in the cold. I typically try give my tractor and my Duramax about 10 minutes to warm up. Then I baby them both a bit for the first 10 minutes or so once I’m in the seat. Premixed will be pretty green.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dave_eng]

I recommend following this instruction from Kubota

Dave

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

BTW I couldn't find a checker but I looked at the antifreeze and it appears to be pure , with no water in it , very bright fluorescent green - doesn't antifreeze always need some water in it?

Get a anti freeze tester, yes 50/50 is max antifreeze to water mix.

 

[200mph]

Something doesn't sound right. If the coolant temperature never gets above 100F when tractor is worked, the thermostat has to be allowing flow through the radiator. Thus rejecting the heat from the engine as it is being generated. The thermostat should stay closed allowing the coolant inside the engine to heat up above 100F. I'm assuming worked to mean RPM's above 1800 and tractor is under some type of load (ex: plowing or blowing snow).

After following all safety precautions, perhaps remove the radiator cap and look for coolant flow. Check through the RPM range. There shouldn't be any until the coolant temperature is well above the stated 100F.

I've owned a number of Kubota's and the only time the temperature didn't come up to temperature during cold operation (20F and below) was when the thermostat was partially stuck open.

A down side of too cold operating temperature is the condensate inside the engine starts to contaminate the oil as it doesn't have a chance to burn (evaporate) off.

If the OP is operating at 1200 rpms and simply driving the tractor around disregard all statements above.

"Warming up before working" also has to do with the tractor hydraulics as Dave_eng post implies.

If it was my tractor and wanted a piece of mind the thermostat is working, I'd remove and test opening temperature using a thermometer. Place the thermostat in a pot along with thermometer (candy thermometer works well) and slowly bring the temperature up.

Curious.... How hot does the oil pan get compared to engine block?

 

[D2Cat]

You could gain some piece of mind with a $20 infrared thermometer. Check at inlet and outlet of radiator, at the back of the head, at the thermostat housing.

Amazon, Wal-mart, local hardware store...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018XJ0JX...t=&hvlocphy=9023860&hvtargid=pla-350424602155

 

[200mph]

You could gain some piece of mind with a $20 infrared thermometer. Check at inlet and outlet of radiator, at the back of the head, at the thermostat housing.

In Post #3 the OP indicated he used one to verify the motor was indeed cold (under 100F).

 

[lugbolt]

put a new thermostat in it. While you're at it, replace all of the coolant.

Diesels don't really get "warm" until they're loaded. Once under a load, they'll make more heat than a gas engine of similar horsepower will.

heat-to a certain extent, loading a cold engine is kinda hard on it. IN other words, you basically have a cold block and hot pistons/rings. Thermal expansion takes place so the clearance between the pistons and the block is reduced. On a cold engine, oil does not flow well. It also does not get warm enough to boil out any moisture so repeated use of a cold engine can cause the engine oil level to rise; and in extreme cases the oil will develop a whitish color due to moisture that isn't boiled off. That's usually due to running the motor at or near idle speed and never letting it get warm. The thermostat is there to help get the engine parts to an acceptable operating temperature as soon as possible.

Lot of folks never really thought about it but on the old Ford 2.3L SOHC "Lima" (Pinto, Ranger, Fox Mustangs, etc) engines, among others, the thermostat would stick open or the housing would corrode and allow coolant to leak past the thermostat. The water pump is directly in front of the #1 cylinder. So cold coolant was pumped into the front of the block, and continually running the engine with a stuck thermostat would cause the #1 cylinder to wear a little more than #2, 3, and 4. I will sometimes buy those engines/blocks for spares (I run a fairly hot turbo version), and find that oftentimes the #1 cylinder is worn .010 while the other 3 are only maybe .004 worn. All due to stuck thermostat-or lack of a thermostat as some folks just remove 'em. Reminds me, my daily driver's 2.3 thermostat may be sticking-it runs at about 160 degrees and fuel mileage is poor (25 mpg-should be mid 30's). Yay-more work

So yes, replace the 'stat as soon as possible.

 

[Dave_eng]

A diesel engine differs from a gasoline engine in one major way as far as air flow through the engine is concerned. A gas engine, has a throttle plate to restrict air flow and still provide fuel atomization under idle and low power situations.

A diesel on the other had has no restrictions in the air flow so lots of air flows through the engine and only fuel quantity is changed to increase power.

This large volume of cold winter air cools the engine internally.

Some gasoline engines, such as the Cadillac V-8 Northstar, can run with no coolant for quite a distance. This is accomplished by cutting fuel injections to alternating cylinders and the air moving through the cylinders with no fuel in an alternating fashion keeps the cylinder wall temps within an acceptable range.

Formula 1 engines, arguably the most advance gasoline engine, use the same strategy when sitting on the starting line or in the pits. There is no cooling fan and this cooling of the cylinders internally when there is not enough car speed to force air through the radiators allows the engines to survive.

Your idling diesel is being cooled by cold intake air. Nevertheless, I suspect a bad thermostat is making the situation much worse.

Dave

 

[nickelplated5s]

FWIW my L4740hst comes up to temp fairly quickly according to the dash panel.